Jeff Landry must release records on aide, as judge rules in favor of Advocate reporter
Source: The Advocate, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Jeff Landry must release records on aide, as judge rules in favor of Advocate reporter
BY GORDON RUSSELL | STAFF WRITER UPDATED MAR 4, 2021 AT 1:27 PM Comments | 4 min to read
A Baton Rouge judge has ordered the release of public records related to a sexual harassment investigation of one of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry's top aides, in an unusual lawsuit in which Landry sued a reporter for seeking the records.
Judge Tim Kelley of the 19th Judicial District ruled in favor of The Advocate | Times-Picayune reporter Andrea Gallo on Thursday, saying that he would release the relevant records after making redactions that might identify witnesses, victims or "bystanders." The records relate to complaints filed about Pat Magee, head of the office’s criminal division, who was disciplined in January after the complaints were investigated by an outside law firm, Taylor Porter.
Landry sued Gallo on Feb. 5, almost two months after she filed her initial request seeking the records of complaints about Magee as well as records showing how those complaints were resolved. The unusual "reverse" lawsuit attracted national attention, prompting a story in the Washington Post and a critical statement from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. A number of other media organizations and institutions also filed amicus briefs supporting the newspaper, including The Lens, Gray Media Group, the Louisiana Press Association and Tulane Law School's First Amendment Clinic.
Because Landry sued Gallo, Kelley ordered the AG's office -- and thus taxpayers -- to pay reasonable attorney's fees of $6,250 to Scott Sternberg, who represented Gallo. The judge rejected a request from Sternberg to find that Landry's office had acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner and assess a fine of $100 per day going back to Dec. 14.
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This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.
Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_8929eaac-7d14-11eb-b84b-a3ff205810e7.html
David Fahrenthold Retweeted
https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold
So the reporter sued by Louisiana state AG Jeff Landry for daring to request *public records* pertaining to sexual harassment complaints against his top aide has, of course, won the case. Congrats
@aegallo
— looking forward to reading your story.
Link to tweet
